


takes one to know one

by hallelujah99



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, TJ is oblivious, kira is not a bad person, slightly angsty, tj and amber are siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 11:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19440292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallelujah99/pseuds/hallelujah99
Summary: Kira and TJ are becoming closer friends, and why shouldn't they? Cyrus is regularly hanging out with his other friends, so TJ doesn't mind spending his free time with Kira. But what if Kira has some ulterior motive?





	takes one to know one

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I do not personally hate Kira, and this story reflects that. If you can't stand to see Kira in a positive light, move on! With that said, this is a Tyrus fic at heart.

“Hey, TJ, wait up!”

Oh, great. Kira again. I like her just fine, but seriously? We just spent all weekend together, and it’s only Monday morning. I guess she really doesn’t have any other friends.

“What’s up?” I ask her.

“Whatcha got going after school today?” She asks.

“I gotta work, sorry.” It’s true, but I’m kind of thankful for the excuse. I need some time to myself tonight.

“Oh, well, what about tomorrow?” The look on her face is so hopeful. I had been hoping to ask Cyrus to hang out but I haven’t had time yet. Besides, half the time he’s busy with his other friends. If he can have other close friends, why can’t I?

“Yeah tomorrow’s good. Did you wanna go to the park, play a little one-on-one?”

I’ve been having a good time playing basketball with her, it’s nice to have someone to do that with, now that most of my old teammates don’t really talk to me.

“Um...” she says “well actually I think it might rain, wanna just hang out at your place? Since it’s so much closer to school?”

So, Kira’s inviting herself over. She can be a little forceful but I guess it would make the most sense that we go to my house. 

“Alright, yeah we can do that.” I agree. I figure if it doesn’t rain, we could practice shooting in my driveway anyway.

“Is your family going to be there?” she asks.

“Probably just my sister again.” I tell her. My mom will be at work and my dad will be out driving Uber, as usual. I haven’t really told her about my family situation, but maybe she’d picked up on it since she smiles when I tell her it’ll just be my sister.

“Cool, maybe she can hang with us, too.”

Unlikely, I figure, considering Amber and I have quite a few mutual friends and still manage to avoid each other for the most part. But if Kira wants to make things really awkward by inviting Amber to chill with us and then being shot down, then so be it.

Just then, out of the corner of my eye, I spot him. Cyrus Goodman. He hasn’t texted me back since Saturday. I’m not sure what’s going on with him. I make a move to get away from Kira as quickly as I can (as bad as that sounds).

“Alright well I’ll see you later.” I tell her before jogging over to him.

“Hey Cyrus, what’s up?” I ask him, flashing him a smile, hoping he’ll reciprocate, because right now, he looks pretty down. I hate seeing him down.

“Oh, not much. Just a really stressful weekend.” He grimaces. He’s avoiding eye contact with me. I’m not sure what happened but I can tell it isn’t good.

“I’m sorry, that really sucks. Do you wanna hang out Wednesday? We can talk about it if you want” I almost tell him that I found a nature documentary I think he’d love, but I decide to surprise him with it.

Unfortunately, he just shrugs. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” I nod. He’s probably hanging out with Buffy and Andi, maybe Jonah.

“Okay, well, just let me know” I try not to sound disappointed.

“Maybe Kira’s free!” He says with honestly the fakest smile I’ve ever seen. I have to roll my eyes.

“Oh my god we’re not a couple.”

“I never said you were!”

I realize he’s right and I’m overreacting. It’s just frustrating, being in my position. I’m friends with Cyrus and I’m happy about that but the truth is I want something more with him, but I can’t tell anyone that. I’m also friends with Kira, and I don’t want anything more than that, but everyone looks at the two of us and all they think is ‘boy plus girl equals couple.’ It just pisses me off, how backwards it all is. And I also don’t want Cyrus to think there’s anything between me and Kira, just on the super off chance he might ever start to think of me the way I think of him.

The bell rings then, and we all head to class. The day goes by, nothing too interesting. I’d like to sit with Cyrus at lunch, but of course he’s sitting with Buffy and Andi and Jonah. They’re kinda my friends too, I know, but not really. Kira and I would be alone if we weren’t with each other, but I enjoy her company nonetheless.

Work is good, honestly it’s the one thing in my life I’m totally enjoying right now. After work, I race to finish most of my homework, then finally settle into bed to watch Netflix on my phone, when I get a text from Cyrus, the first one since he invited me over to the sale his friends were having. Which reminds me, I need to ask him about that shirt…or maybe he’s just waiting for my birthday or something.

**Cyrus: Sorry about this morning. I just have a lot on my mind. I’d love to hang out after school Wednesday, if you’re still free.**

Just seeing his name on my phone gives me butterflies. I’m so happy things are good between us. It really puts things in perspective, too. I used to sometimes really wish we could be more than friends, and even thought about risking our friendship on it. But after everything recently, all the times I’ve thought he was really mad at me because of Kira, I realize now that as long as I have him in my life at all, that’s what matters most. I can live with the fact we’re just friends. Being his friend is an honor.

I text him back:

**TJ: Well, if you’re wanting to talk about everything, I’m here for you. We can even go to the swings, since I know that usually makes you feel better! Then we could come back to my place and watch a movie?**

I press send and wait but he doesn’t respond. I look over exactly what I wrote over and over again, but can’t figure out where I went wrong. I responded in literally three minutes, did he text me right before he started doing something? I’m so confused but there’s nothing I can really do so I go back to Netflix.

The whole rest of the night he doesn’t text me back. I don’t know what I did wrong. I think about texting him again but I don’t want to annoy him. I go to bed, checking my phone every few minutes before falling asleep.

Waking up Tuesday morning, I check my phone again. Nothing. At least Kira’s coming over today, that will keep my mind off of things.

I hardly see Cyrus all day and didn’t really get a chance to chat. It stresses me out, I want to talk to him, but at the same time, we always see each other more on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays than Tuesdays and Thursdays, just because of our schedules, so I try not to let it get to me. I figure I can talk it all out with him tomorrow. I’m still really looking forward to seeing him.

After school, Kira meets me by the front doors. She’s holding a bag on her shoulder. “What’s that?” I ask her. “A board game, I brought it from home, it’s really fun. It’s three player though, but Amber will be home right?” She seems really freaking eager, I guess this game must be pretty awesome.

“Um, yeah, she might be. I don’t really know her schedule that well, though.” Kira frowns, I can tell she’s really disappointed. “We could maybe see if there’s anyone else who could come over and play with us? Like um…” I’ve realized Cyrus really doesn’t like Kira at all for some reason, so I don’t suggest him, but after Cyrus, there’s not that many people I can think of to invite.

“No, no.” Kira says quickly. “We can just…see if Amber’s home.”

Walking to my house, it’s quite windy and I can tell it’s going to rain soon, just like Kira had said. I always love the feeling of the air before the rain. I told Cyrus that once, and he told me he liked it, too. God, I remember that day like it was yesterday, we were sitting on his back porch, waiting for the rain to come and just talking about everything. I remember wishing that I could capture that moment in a bottle and open it whenever. Right now, I wish that even more. I miss being around him. I always miss it whenever we’re apart, and it’s so much more frequent now. I feel it in my bones, like I’m missing part of me. That’s too dramatic though. My dramatic gay ass and my stupid, never-ending crush on Cyrus Goodman.

We arrive to my house, and sure enough Amber is there. As usual, we ignore each other until Kira gives me a look, and I understand she’s really anxious to start playing this freaking board game.

“Hey, Amber?”

“Yeah?” She doesn’t look up from her phone.

“Kira brought over this board game, but it’s minimum 3 players, can you play with us?”

She puts down her phone and looks up slowly at me, obviously very confused. I look back at her, equally confused and shrug.

“Uh, I guess.” She finally answers.

“Alright, awesome!” Kira’s bouncing with excitement as she puts the game out on the kitchen table and explains it to us. We play for a while, and yeah I guess it’s pretty fun, Kira talked it up a little too highly but it was a nice way to pass the time.

Once it’s over, Amber tells us she had a good time but needs to study for a test tomorrow. Kira and I clean up the game and to my surprise she says “Well, I better get going, too. I’m gonna text my brother to pick me up.” I look at the clock, and it’s only been like 30 minutes.

“You came over to hang out just for 30 minutes?” She shrugs “I have a big test tomorrow too, in history.”

“Why did you ask to hang out then?” I don’t know why I asked, and it sounded kind of rude coming out of my mouth but I’m genuinely confused.

She looks down and I can tell I’ve struck a nerve. She looks…embarrassed.

Oh no, this can’t be happening. Am I blind? Did she…Does she actually like me? After I was so sure this was just a platonic thing? Because, let’s be honest, I’d hang out with Cyrus the day before a big test, even if it was just for 30 minutes, and that’s not something I would say about anyone else really.

I need to nip this in the bud, if its not already too late.

“Hey, Kira, I hope you know that I really like hanging out with you…” I try to finish my sentence “-but only as a friend” but the words get stuck in my throat, it sounds so cliché and I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, even though I know I need to say it. Unfortunately, my words hang in the air and Kira covers her face in embarrassment.

“I’m so sorry. I need to tell you something, right now.” She says. “I wasn’t totally honest about why I wanted to hang out today.

I’m so confused right now, but I let her continue.

“I like hanging out with you, I really do, but the truth is…” she took a deep breath and I brace myself for whatever is coming next, and the fact I’m probably going to have to let down my friend after she pours her heart out to me.

“The truth is that I wanted to come over to see Amber again. The other day, when I was here and I met her, I felt something. And it’s something that I only ever felt once before, for this girl at my old school, and I thought maybe that was a fluke but now…” Her voice is small and she’s keeping her gaze down, which is so unlike her.

To my own surprise, I scoot my chair over next to her and wrap an arm around her. “I know exactly how you feel, and I know it’s scary, but it’s going to be okay. There’s nothing wrong with you, alright?”

I realize that telling her those words “It’s going to be okay, there’s nothing wrong with you,” I’m half telling them to myself.

Kira nods. “I thought you might understand.”

“Why?” I ask.

“You and Cyrus.” She says simply, and I smile. She’s right and she knows it.

She turns to me and hugs me, and it feels so good to feel understood for a second.

“I was afraid you were going to try to start dating me.” She tells me after we pull away. I have to laugh at that. “Even though you realized how I feel about Cyrus?” She shrugs. “I thought maybe you’d want me to a be your beard.”

“Nah, I’m in the closet, but I’m not that far in.”

“I feel that.” She says, and it feels so great to finally be able to talk to someone like this.

“Anyway, what happened with the girl from your old school?” Kira smiles and rolls her eyes. “I’ll tell you all about it later. My brother is going to be here in a minute.”

“Alright.” I tell her. “One question though, how did you realize I had a crush on Cyrus?” She shrugs “Just the way you talk about him, the way you look at him. Don’t worry though, I don’t think anyone else knows. It’s just kinda a ‘takes one to know one’ sort of thing.” I figure that must be all there is to it, and hopefully Kira really is the only person that’s noticed. “Fair enough.”

As she puts her rain jacket on, she turns to me and says “Also, I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m pretty sure he feels the same way.” With that, she heads out the door and through the rain to her brother’s car.

And I’m left standing in the doorway wondering what the hell to do with all this new information.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who made it through this! I know it's not really popular to portray Kira positively but this is my take : She just wants a friend. Cyrus literally, canonically, spends most of his social time with people who are not TJ. TJ deserves more friends! As for the costume day thing, it could be interpreted as homophobic, but I think it's also possible she was just begging to have someone do a costume with her, so she wasn't alone. TJ's internalized homophobia took over from there. 
> 
> Anyway if anyone is still reading, thank you so much and I would love to read any comments you have-even if just to say that you hate Kira and nothing can change you mind lol


End file.
